The past 6 days have been an inspirational whirlwind! On
Wednesday, April 27, all of the dancers came together for the
first time in Sarajevo!
After 3 long but fun days of rehearsals, our first performance
in Sarajevo was a great success.

On Saturday we all traveled by train together from Sarajevo to
Mostar for our 2nd performance at the National Theater.
The turnout was FANTASTIC and the feedback was all incredibly
positive, supportive and encouraging!

On the train back from Mostar today, I had a moment to sit down
and talk to the Belgrade dancers about their experiences so far.
They were all sad to be leaving Mostar so soon but were looking
forward to coming back again. They were also very excited to
host the Mostar and Sarajevo dancers next weekend and to show
them their Belgrade. While talking about their experiences, the
whole train car burst into tears as they expressed how
liberating this project was for them because they were able to
make their own choreography and to make new friendships.
Obviously the dancing and performances are an important part of
the project. The bonding that is taking place outside of the
project is even more important.

While stranded in Konjic for one hour on our way to Mostar, the
dancers were already starting to plan projects that they could
implement in the future.
Also, while some dancers were at first hesitant to host the
visiting dancers, they had a change of heart after a few days of being
together. One of our Mostar dancers even offered to host all of
the Belgrade dancers so they could stay an extra night in
Mostar!

Despite the rain, the dancers spent their day exploring the old
town and were even able to catch the divers jumping off of the
famous old bridge. Later that evening they all ended up playing
Pictionary together in one of the Mostar dance studios.

Next Saturday we will perform in Belgrade for our last
performance. I have included a few photos below from our Mostar
performance and I will be sending you the videos of the
performances shortly.

We made it!!
I can not express how touched I am by your generosity. I am really overwhelmed by the support that has flooded in from around the world.

Please continue spreading the word, as our goal of $2500 is really the bare minimum to cover the cost of transportation, Mostar stage, and food for dancers while they are away from their cities.

Extra funds will be used to provide both lunch and dinner for all of the dancers during their 3 long days of rehearsals and performance in Sarajevo, and cover the cost of a youth hostel for the dancers that are not being hosted by a local family.As all of the dancers are donating their time, this is really the least we can do to thank them for their time, hard work and devotion to this project.

Thank you again for all of your support and hard
work in spreading the word. It really is working! I am overwhelmed with
everyone's generosity and belief in this project!

Here are a few short interviews from some of our Belgrade dancers.

A rough translation of the interview from our youngest dancer, who
is just 16: (local language speakers, please feel free to correct me!)
"I like this project a lot because it includes people from Mostar,
Belgrade and Sarajevo . I've never been to any of those places and my
grandmother is originally from Mostar. It's nice to create something
together with people from the different cities"